The people, in favor of passing a law against Hindus marrying within the same Gotra - the mythical lineage of people supposedly descending from the same ancient Aryan sage - point out vociferously to the genetic disorders resulting from inbreeding and marrying a cousin. My friend Vikas pointed me to the linked documents about inbreeding. That's correct. Inbreeding may lead to several disorders, but the probability of inbreeding reduces exponentially when the relation becomes distant. Even for 2nd cousin it's only 0.7%. So if separated by a few generations, the chance of inbreeding is almost zero. So the scientifically disallowing marriage within the same Gotra and same village stuff don't hold good.

IF there is one thing the average Hindu would want to feel proud of, it is that he is not intolerant.

Think of this: The ruling party is today headed by an Italian-born Roman Catholic who runs the country. The Prime Minister is a Sikh. The Vice-President is a Muslim and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, not to speak of the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court are dalits.

The Speaker besides, is a woman, which other country, pray, can show such liberalism? Not a single country in the world. The so-called upper caste Hindu, besides, suffers from an enormous guilt complex vis-à-vis dalits, for treating them for centuries as untouchables, no matter what various social reformers like Dasaveshwara in Karnataka have striven to change the mind-set of people.

That is why, one suspects, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in her fourth term can get away with anything. Mayawati is a dalit and she has been exploiting the guilt-complex effectively. She must be one of the most corrupt Chief Minister India ever had, but she gets away scot-free.

The same thing happened in the case of Shibu Soren who ditched the BJP to keep the UPA government going. There has been a criminal case against Soren, but these can wait. After all, he is a tribal, isn’t he? Like Mayawati being a dalit, isn’t she? How can anyone blame them?

Rajeev Srinivasan on why the Thai troubles should be an eye-opener for India, which faces similar insurgents with covert agendas

Rajeev Srinivasan on why the Thai troubles should be an eye-opener for India, which faces similar insurgents with covert agendas

What alarms me about the Bangkok situation is that I can easily imagine a similar situation in New Delhi, with the capital held hostage by gangs of Communist insurgents, quite possibly barricaded inside the JNU campus, where they gain succor and support from armchair urban guerillas. Just as in Bangkok, we might watch on TV the hopes of a stable and progressing Indian economy going up in thick, black, acrid smoke – welcome back to the dark ages of ‘roti-kapda-makan’ and the rent-seeking neta-babu-journalist nexus, a preview of which we got with the 2G scam.

There are differences, of course. The Indian Army is not involved in business, whereas the Thai army is a smaller version of the Pakistani Army in that context – it runs many industries, and is not dependent on the national government for all of its budget.

But the eerie parallels to, say, Nepal, are many: the end result may well be a ‘secular’ movement to overthrow the Buddhist monarchy, which will then be portrayed as roundly corrupt, godless, feudal – whatever else the spin-meisters can think of.

The destruction of the Thai State would be a tragedy. It was just about the only Asian nation that, through some fancy footwork, avoided being colonized. This has given the average Thai a certain self-confidence. Secondly, turmoil is likely to be exploited by vulture-like missionaries descending on the country, much as they did in the aftermath of the tsunami elsewhere. In Nepal, it is reported that a million people were converted to Christian sects after the Communists took over. Similarly the number of mosques, and presumably adherents, has soared. We might find the same in Thailand.

Odd, isn’t it, that there are Communist revolutions in Hindu and Buddhist monarchies, but never in Christian or Mohammedan monarchies? Coincidence? Communists have been accused of being ‘useful idiots’ for others. Let us note that, according to reliable sources, the manifesto of the Communist terrorists in India speaks at length about extinguishing ‘imperialism’ and ‘liberalism’, but is silent about ‘poverty’ and ‘tribals’.

The extinction of the State, neo-colonization and neo-conversion – these are the downsides of globalization. India would be well-advised to watch the Thai example with great care.

One major reason for this tragic state of affairs is primarily because of India’s divide and rule policy to keep us divided and at one another’s throats so that she can quietly go on exploiting and sucking away our mineral wealth from underneath our feet. India has done this very effectively by keeping us ignorant of our own histories while subtly permeating our minds and memories with Indian history that, in the first place, has nothing to do with us. After all, neither Akbar nor Ashoka were North Eastern Mongolian Kings to whom we owe any allegiance or historical fidelity. Neither were the Mauryan or Mughal dynasties of India part of our history in any sense. But we were made to study these foreign histories as our own history right from our primary schools all across our college and university studies. That being the case with most of us, for all these years, we have been living as neighbors with our Manipur and Assamese counterparts with very little historical knowledge about them or even ourselves!

Their original religion which is called Sanamahi also resembles many Christian beliefs like man being created in the image of God.

Meetei’s and Nagas are still blood brothers who know their own common origins and the boundaries of their habitations. Therefore they must sit down together and settle their territorial disputes by sticking to historical facts rather than listening to or conforming to British or Indian boundary lines. This is because while we are indigenous inhabitants of our lands, the British and Indians are foreigners who do not own even an inch of our native lands.

TIRUPATI: In the wake of collapse of Rajagopuram of Srikalahasti temple, a team from Hindu Devalaya Parirakshana Samithi (HDPS) has inspected various temples in Chittoor district. After examining the strength of ancient temple structures, it has come up with some suggestions to protect them.In a letter written to TTD executive officer IYR Krishna Rao, a copy of which was released to the media here today, HDPS State president Kamalakar Swamy said the north western side of Venkateswara temple at Tirumala from where devotees worship Vimana Venkateswara, was slowly sinking. Hence, there is an urgent need to study the reasons and take remedial action. The vegetation that grew on Galigopuram of Venkateswara temple should be removed.Golla Mandapam which is in dilapidated condition, should be reconstructed.Veyikalla Mandapam should also be reconstructed as suggested by the PVRK Prasad Committee. Steps should also be taken to check pollution on Tirumala Hills, he said. The Samithi urged the TTD to get the court stay on Peruru Banda land vacated to facilitate renovation of Vakulamatha temple. It was not proper on the part of the TTD to use temple lands for employees’ housing. A solar fencing should be erected around the Seven Hills to further strengthen security,he said.

The curtain has finally come down on the tragedy of Air India Express Dubai-Mangalore IX-812 flight that crashed at the Bajpe airport on 22nd May 2010 that had resulted in the death of 158 of 166 on board, when the bodies of the last twelve victims of the disaster including that of Ignatius D’Souza of Manibettu, Moodubelle were accorded a common funeral on Wednesday, 2nd June 2010 at 4.30 pm on the bank of the Kulur River on the Panamboor side. The site was prepared in advance with 12 graves dug in three lines having four graves each.

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With the arrival of the unidentified bodies to the burial ground they were laid by the side of the allotted graves by volunteers. Thereafter priests representing three religions, Islam, Roman Catholicism and Hindu recited their respective prayers for the eternal rest of the souls of the deceased.

The unidentified mortal remains that were finally laid to rest by the side of the Kulur River on the side of Panamboor were those of : Ignatius D’Souza of Shaktinagar, Mohammed Ismail Hassan of Jeppu, K K Shetty of Kodialbail, Vaman Prabhu of Ashoknagar, all hailing from Mangalore; Aboobakker Siddiq, Abdul Aziz, brothers from Uppala; Abdul Basheer from Bekal, Sukumar from Mailatti, Sujatha Survase-Air India crew member, Naveed Ibrahim, Malpe, Zainab Mohammed Ziyad and Mohammed Zubair from Udupi,both children.

Bulandshahr - June 01:In an alleged attempted "honour killing", a man poured acid on his daughter and threw her into a canal for planning to marry a man from another religion Tuesday, police said. The girl is in critical condition in hospital. Gulistan, 18, daughter of Asghar Ali of Charaura village in Bulandshahr district, 350 km from Lucknow, fell in love with Ravinder, 20, who ran a medical store in the village and often came to their house to deliver medicines. The couple eloped 10 days back but were traced to Delhi and Gulistan was taken back to the village. Her parents then pretended that they had agreed to let her marry Ravinder and asked her to come with them to Delhi to buy clothes for the marriage. The girl left with her father and brother. When they reached near the upper Ganges canal on Grand Trunk Road, they stopped and dragged her out. First they poured acid on her face, strangulated her and then threw her in the canal. Assuming that she had died, they left the place. However, Gulistan revived in the water and shouted for help. Some local boys of nearby villages, playing there, rescued her and informed police, who admitted her to hospital. Asghar has been arrested and a search is on for his son, Superintendent of Police (City) J.K. Sahi said. "On the spot from where the girl was rescued, she said her father was annoyed over her love affair with the local Hindu boy but when her statement was recorded before the magistrate in the hospital, she shifted from her original statement made before the police and said after getting angry at her father’s objection, she poured the acid on herself," Sahi said

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala high court in a landmark judgment on Tuesday came out heavily against the Travancore Dewasom board and said that the temples in Kerala are like orphanages, and even the day-to-day activities of the temples are not being carried out properly.The division bench of the high court while admitting a petition filed by the Dewaswom employees confederation against the mass transfer of employees, remarked that the Travancore Dewaswom board has failed in every aspect in running the temples.The division bench comprising of Justice C S Ramachandran Nair and P S Gopinath said that the temples coming under the administration of Travancore Dewaswom board finds it difficult to even conduct the routine festivals. The court also observed that the local people have to resorted to court to even conduct the annual temple festivals, and remarked that this was as indeed owing to the pathetic management of the temple board.

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The court also observed that some political nominees in the director board of the Travancore Dewaswom board have not risen to the expectations of the people and called upon the government to try and select honest people to such crucial posts.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has joined an international network for the return of priceless artifacts taken away during British rule, including the Kohinoor diamond and the Sultanganj Buddha. The Kohinoor also spelled Koh-i Nur and Koh-e-Noor means “Mountain of Light” in Persian. It is a 105 carat diamond that was once the largest known diamond in the world. The Kohinoor originated at Kollur, Guntur district in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. It has belonged to various Hindu, Mughal, Persian, Afghan, Sikh and British rulers who fought bitterly over it at various points in Indian history and seized it as a spoil of war time and again. Kohinoor was finally seized by the East India Company and became part of the British Crown Jewels when Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India in 1877. ASI’s Director General Gautam Sengupta said the list of India’s treasures held abroad was “too long to handle” and there was a need for a “diplomatic and legal campaign” for their restitution from institutions, including the British Museum, the Royal Collection and the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

The Sultanganj Buddha is the largest complete bronze figure of its kind in the world. It was found in the North Indian town of Sultanganj, Bhagalpur district, Bihar. The Sultanganj Buddha was discovered during railway construction in Sultanganj in 1862 by the East India Company. The statue is dated by archaelogists at between 500 to 700 AD. It is 2.3m high and 1m wide, and was made using the lost wax technique. It is now part of a collection at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

According to the newspaper report, the British Museum said it was satisfied that the objects highlighted by the Indian authorities had been acquired legitimately.